A NUMBER of people were arrested in Southport during the weekend blitz on teenage drinking by Merseyside Police.

A NUMBER of people were arrested in Southport during the weekend blitz on teenage drinking by Merseyside Police.

A drug search warrant was also implemented in the ‘catchement’ while police officers attended licensed premises to crackdown on teenage binge boozing.

A total of 206 arrests were made across Merseyside while for the Southport, Formby and Maghull unit a total of eight arrests were made, one drugs warrant was executed and six vehicles were also seized.

In our area police visited 25 licensed premises and made checks on 37 doormen. They recovered 33 units of alcohol and issued two formal warnings for possession of cannabis.

Identified Southport hotspots included the West Street and Waverley Street areas.

Officers made sure door staff were being utilised and to make sure there was no under age serving.

Southport north east neighbourhood inspector Martin Woosey said: “I would not say that binge drinking is a bigger problem in Southport than anywhere else, but there is a drinking culture in the resort and we need to keep violence down.

“Last weekend we made sure that licensed premises had door staff on, we made sure they were not serving under-age people.

“There will always be a problem and we want to nip it in the bud. We went out early doors as we wanted the community to know we were there.

“There is a problem around the West Street and the Waverley Street area of the town. That’s because there are large numbers of people gathered due to the number of licensed premises there.”

He added: “As the resort comes alive at midnight we have more officers operating. People are coming out of bars later. So we have officers operating later.”

Across Merseyside there were 280 raids, 1,460 cars taken off the road, more than £300,000 in drugs uncovered and £150,000 in suspicious cash seized.

The results have played a huge part in the recent crime statistics which show crime in Merseyside is falling faster than any other region.

The crackdown was the latest stage of Merseyside’s total policing plan, in which over 2,000 people were arrested during the last year.